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José Montoya
José Montoya (born 1932) is an American poet and artist. He is one of the most influential bilingual Chicano poets. He has published many well-known poems in anthologies and magazines. He has been the poet laureate of Sacramento, California. Life Montoya was born and raised in Sacramento. Making his start soon after the Korean War when he entered San Diego City College as an art student, Montoya later transferred to the California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, California. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1962. In the early 1970s, he joined students and members of the Chicano community to found the Rebel Chicano Art Front, later renamed the Royal Chicano Air Force, which organized numerous cultural, educational, and political activities in the Sacramento area. He began his career by teaching High School until he earned his MA in 1971, at California State University. He then taught for 25 years in the Department of Art Education at CSUS. His son Richard Montoya is a member of the performance troupe Culture Clash. Writing "El Louie" Hoy enterraron al Louie. And San Pedro o san pinche Are in for it. And those Times of the forties And the early fifties Lost un vato de atolle. :— El Louie, 1969 "El Louie" is probably Montoya's most famous and most often anthologized poem. With compassion and anger, it tells the story of Louie, a pachuco from San José and California's Central Valley who is a popular local figure. After he comes back from the war in Korea his life disintegrates as he continues coming into conflict with the white-dominated world of California; he is a hero and a loser, hocking his combat medals for booze and drugs; he dies alone in squalid conditions. Louie is not elevated to gangster sainthood, but he is "recognized as a normative model" rather than portrayed as deviant, dangerous or insignificant (Hernandez 76). Recognition He was Poet Laureate of Sacramento from 2002 to 2004.Past Poets Laureate, Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. Web, Mar. 23, 2013. Publications *''El Sol y Los De Abajo and other R.C.A.F. poems por José Montoya''. San Francisco, CA: Ediciones Pocho-che, 1972. *''In Formation: 20 Years of Joda''. Chusma House Publications, 1992. *Trio Casindio and the Royal Chicano Air Force. 20 Years of Songs by José Montoya. See also *List of U.S. poets *List of Chicano poets *Tortilla art References *Elliott, Emory. The Columbia Literary History of the United States. NY: Columbia UP, 1988. *Hernandez, Guillermo E. Chicano Satire. 2 March 2004. http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/csrc/gmo/span145/articles/satirepgs52-84.html. Austin: U of TX P, 1991. Notes External links ;Audio / video *Jose Montoya reads from "El Louie" at Latinopia. *Jose Montoya at YouTube ;About *Jose Montoya (1932- ) in Contemporary Hispanic Biography. *By the People and for the People: An Analysis of José Montoya’s “El Louie” and its Significance in the Chicano Movement at Literature Mosaic ;Etc. *Guide to the Montoya José Papers from the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives Category:American poets of Mexican descent Category:American artists of Mexican descent Category:Living people Category:1932 births Category:People from Sacramento, California Category:California College of the Arts alumni Category:California State University alumni Category:California State University, Sacramento faculty Category:Municipal Poets Laureate in the United States